Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A Beginning

Good evening. I have started this humble blog for several reasons:

First, to write about food in an accessible, enjoyable manner—after all, what good is a chef who can't tell you a thing about food, or who is so confusing in their speech that all you understand is that you're about to eat something?

Second, to encourage the creativity of my fellow steampunks. We are, after all, an intensely creative community of people; why should this creative energy be applied only to literary and presentational pursuits? That is to say, we can and should do so much more than write stories and make costumes. Creativity in the kitchen is just like creativity elsewhere—it is a skill to be honed, to be practiced, and most importantly, to be shared.

Third, to encourage my own creative process—"steampunk food" is a nebulous concept (to be fair, steampunk itself is somewhat nebulous,) and I want to force myself to think within my own constraints and develop delightful foods to flesh out my enjoyment of the steampunk world.

I suppose there's a fourth, and necessarily more general, goal—I like to have fun, and this seems an awfully fun way to approach food. After all, if hundreds of other food bloggers are doing it, it's got to have some merit.

Photo by Robert Egan

A little more about me, then.

I am Aaron, also sometimes known as other things, but for now Aaron shall suffice. I am many things in life, and for the purposes of an introduction, I shall tell you some of them: I am a cook training to become a chef, I am an historian, I am a tailor, I am a steampunk enthusiast, I am busy, and I love to eat food of many varieties. In the time I am able to take away from cooking and studying about cooking, I am involved in the Imperial Anti-Piracy Squadron, a performance and educational group specializing in steampunk—you might encounter me as Graf Georg von Ziger (or a host of other characters) at cons such as the World Steam Expo. I also work behind-the-scenes assisting my good friend Miss Kagashi in her monumental task of running the group. It's good fun. Miss Kagashi also runs a blog called The Steamer's Trunk, which I think you'll enjoy.

As a cook and a steampunk, I find it interesting to explore the intersection of those two pastimes—so, onward!

10 comments:

What's on the menu, you overdressed haggis? (Did you really think I'd pass up the chance to start you off with a Highlander joke?) I think a post on the cuisine consumed by Diamond Jim Brady would be all kinds of fun.

Howdy! I just wanted to let you know that I am excited to see where you take this blog. As a lover of steampunk and an utter foodie (and devourer of food blogs), I can't wait to see how you intersect the two. :)

As a fellow steampunk blogger who started blogging...yesterday, let me say I'm thrilled to see this addition to the steampunk blog culture. I too am curious about steampunk food. Does it have shiny metal garnish? Kidding, kidding. Anyways, good luck,Jackie

As a collector of Victorian cookbooks and fellow steampunk enthusiast, I look forward to see where you take this. I frequently modernize Victorian recipes and agree that Mrs. Beeton is a useful reference.

About Me

is an ACF-Certified Chef, with an associate's degree in Culinary Arts, and a bachelor's degree in History. He also is an amateur tailor, an actor, a teacher, and a connoisseur of the finer things in life.

Recipes presented herein are accurate inasmuch as I have prepared them and found them to be satisfactory or better. Cooking is a subjective art, and you might not like what I like... so feel free to salt.